The benchmark indices ended mildly in the positive on Thursday, making it four successive days of gains, amid heightened volatility. The Sensex oscillated in a broad range of 840 points between an intra-day high of 50,375.77 and a low of 49,535.98 before ending the session at 49,765.94, higher by 32.10 points or 0.06 per cent and the Nifty swung 230 points before closing at 14,894.90, up 30.35 points or 0.20 per cent. The BSE MIdcap and Smallcap indices also ended on a flat note.
This is the longest winning streak for the markets since early-February as investors have seemingly chosen to look past surging Covid-19 cases at home and focus on earnings reports from blue-chip companies.
The indices had rallied by more than 1 per cent at opening bell, with the BSE Sensex re-claiming the 50,000 mark and the NSE Nifty surpassing the 15,000 mark, buoyed by the firm global markets. However they soon surrendered their gains and turned volatile due to selling pressure at the technically crucial level of 15,000 on the Nifty and the April series derivatives expiry. The Nifty Volatility index, which is the guage of volatility, spiked four per cent during the day.
Meanwhile, the rupee rose by 29 paise to close at 74.07 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday, extending gains for the fourth straight session. At the interbank forex market, the rupee opened at 74.20 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 73.94 and a low of 74.23.
Metal stocks continued their dream run on the back of firming metal prices globally. JSW Steel soared more than 9 per cent at Rs 726, while Tata Steel gained 6 per cent to end above the Rs 1000 mark and Hindalco added 2 per cent on the BSE.
On the other hand, the auto pack had a weak session of trade, with Eicher Motors, Hero Motocorp and Bajaj Auto shedding around 2 per cent each on the BSE.
Among the earnings candidates of the day, Hindustan Unilever pared its intra-day gains and ended flat at Rs 2,409 on the BSE after the country’s leading fast-moving consumer goods manufacturer reported a 41 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 2,143 crore in the quarter ended March 2021, compared to Rs 1,519 crore in the same quarter last year.
Bajaj Auto shed 1.4 per cent at Rs 3,834.25 after the country’s leading two-wheeler maker, Bajaj Auto, on Thursday reported consolidated net profit of Rs 1,551.28 crore in quarter ended March 2021, marking an increase of 14.57 per cent from Rs 1,353.99 crore in the same quarter last year.
The BSE market breadth was weak. Out of 3,117 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1,375 advancing stocks as against 1,568 declines.